The Garb of Charity

Businesses were very pragmatic. The returns you brought them determined the compensation they gave you.

There was a very strong positive correlation between the two.

That was why the Gates Foundation could offer the astronomical sum of five million dollars. Let alone for a PhD student, even for Bawendi, that would have been an astronomical price. Without doing research for companies, there was no way he could earn that annual salary on a university paycheck alone.

Chen Yuanguang was very curious about what the Gates Foundation's so-called Global Health Project actually did.

After Lin Jia returned from China, she went on and on about what she had seen there and the differences in the granularity of government administration between China and Western countries.

"Yuanguang, honestly, China's mobilization capabilities are astonishing. During this response to the virus, China's administrative reach could be refined down to every street and every residential community.

"If this were wartime, that would be an extremely terrifying war potential. It would mean we could mobilize every organization at the very bottom level.

"Meanwhile, Europe and America can manage, at most, down to the city level. This isn't merely a matter of political structure—it's also rooted in cultural fundamentals."

Since Lin Jia had left the country before the virus emerged, even chartering a plane home had been extremely difficult. When she returned, she found that China had gradually returned to normal, and the situation appeared to be under control.

She had wondered why the West did not adopt China's solution. Later, recalling her experiences on the streets of Paris, London, and Berlin, Lin Jia realized it was not that they did not want to learn—they simply could not do it within their own systems.

Even in America, only core developed cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles possessed both the capacity and willingness for such mobilization.

Chen Yuanguang listened quietly to Lin Jia's account of her trip home. Only after she had finished did he begin telling her about the offers he had received and how he planned to deal with them.

"I didn't reject the Gates Foundation's offer outright. I just said I needed to think about it.

"What do you think of the title, compensation, and promises they offered?"

After returning to China, Lin Jia had constantly seen news about Chen Yuanguang. Even her friends often messaged her on WeChat, saying they envied her for finding such a genius.

Only after hearing Chen Yuanguang out did she realize that, as the center of the storm, he had suffered dozens of times the impact she had.

"The Gates Foundation can afford that money. They're an extraordinarily profitable company, so don't treat them as a charitable organization.

"When I was at Columbia University last year, one of my projects involved researching charitable organizations around the world. The Gates Foundation is enormous. They donate several billion dollars every year, and last year—2019—their annual revenue exceeded thirty billion euros.

"They're a colossal entity themselves. At the same time, under the garb of charity, they are fully capable of helping you maneuver your way to a Nobel Prize.

"I think the promise they made is one you might actually be able to collect on.

"Because if you sign with them, your ability will be the most important factor. They clearly think you have enormous potential and believe that, theoretically, you can be of help to them.

"At the same time, the Gates Foundation surely wants its Global Health Project to have a gimmick, a hot topic they can promote.

"When publicizing it in underdeveloped regions, they can say that our Chief Scientist is a giant of the scientific world, the youngest Nobel Prize winner of modern times.

"As for helping you maneuver for a Nobel Prize, their annual donations to research institutions worldwide start at a billion dollars, and they've been doing this for over twenty years.

"Either way, the money is being spent. When you pay taxes, the government spends it for you, and the decision-making power isn't in your hands. When public universities receive that money, they see it as government appropriations, something they are entitled to.

"But when you use the garb of charity to avoid taxes and spend the money yourself, you decide which institution and which project receives the donation. You hold the power to allocate resources, so naturally, the institutions, projects, and people receiving those resources have to acknowledge that favor.

"In places like China, where this way of operating is not yet so mature, that is called a favor. In Europe and America, where charitable operations are already highly developed, it is a contract—better than a contract without being one.

"If Foundation A donates money to you and you fail to provide the expected return, not only will A never give you money again, other foundations will stop donating as well. It is even more binding than a contract."

After hearing this, Chen Yuanguang was astonished by the sophistication of how things worked in Europe and America. He felt as if he had finally understood. Lin Jia seemed to know a great deal, so he asked curiously, "Is that population control plan everyone keeps spreading online real?

"Is the Gates Foundation genuinely charitable, or do they want to control the population of the Third World?"

As a former webnovel author, Chen Yuanguang was very interested in such conspiracy theories.

Lin Jia said, "I don't know. My view is that the charity is definitely real. If it were fake, evidence would have come out long ago.

"Even the Prism Project was exposed. If the Gates Foundation had some shady secret, Western media would definitely never let them off the hook.

"As for population control, I think that may be one of their objectives as well. It's just that I believe their method of achieving it differs from the one conspiracy theorists imagine.

"They may think like this: some people can live to eighty, while others can only live to forty. Through a series of measures, those who can live to eighty keep living until eighty, while those who can only live to forty are made to die early at twenty.

"That is also population control—through layer upon layer of selection, ensuring that only long-lived, healthy genes survive in a certain region, then searching among those genes for the secret to extending life.

"They probably sought you out for a similar reason. They believe you possess a rare talent in biological computing and hope you can help them continue unraveling the mystery of human lifespan."

Lin Jia continued, "These wealthy Europeans and Americans are far more obsessed with immortality than Chinese tycoons. Chinese tycoons who want longevity generally just burn incense and worship Buddha; even donating to hospitals or laboratories is already quite rare.

"What Western billionaires love most is donating to hospitals and biological research institutions. Some even personally serve as test subjects for longevity research programs."

Chen Yuanguang thought that a future where the average lifespan was 120 years would be paradise compared to modern society.

Technology that could further extend lifespans through hibernation would probably drive those wealthy people insane in the modern era.

Seeing Chen Yuanguang deep in thought, Lin Jia continued, "The Gates Foundation's Global Health Project is the main focus of all their charitable donations, accounting for roughly thirty percent.

"By the way, have you thought about where you want to go in the future? Stay at a university here, return to China and work at a domestic university, or do you have other plans?"

Chen Yuanguang thought for a moment and decided to reveal some of his true thoughts to Lin Jia. "Right now, I want to start a business.

"I want to build a startup around Frontier Technology, in areas like materials science or biology. I just haven't settled on a specific direction yet, and I also haven't decided whether to start it in China or here."